February 24th, 2013

How embarrassing, it’s been nearly a month since my last post. Oops. I haven’t been idle though. Mostly, I’ve been knitting. A lot of it was sample work in preparation for my knitting classes — they start in a week! Here’s the class list if you’re interested.

But I do have a few knitted items worth showing off.

A pair of pull-through scarves in the traditional “old shale” lace pattern. The pale rainbow colored one on the left is bound for the sample board at the fabric store where I’ll be teaching. The other, darker colored scarf is up for grabs in my Etsy sample sale store. I’ve been knitting these neat scarves for years. They make great holiday gifts, and only take a single skein of yarn! I plan to publish the pattern shortly as well.

And what better 19th-century gift from a faithful wife to her consort than a pair of hand-knitted socks? Though the colorway on these is far from traditional. It’s all in the yarn — self-striping (and fair isle-ing) Heart & Sole with Aloe spun in for comfort. These are also destined for the sample board, at least for a while. Then back to warm my darling’s tootsies.

January 30th, 2013

I’ve been knitting again lately. First the seaman’s caps. Then a flurry of tiny garments for a special wee someone, who’s impending arrival is causing much excitement amongst the family and friends of a certain bosom chum of mine. And now in preparation for a series of knitting and crocheting classes at a local store.

It’s been years since I’ve taught knitting, and I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve been brushing up on basic technique, tricks of the trade, and patterns for cables and openwork. I even started a Tumblr for the classes.

On the knitting side, I plan to offer a monthly intensive for absolute beginners, plus weekly sessions for intermediate knitters who want to expand their skills. If you’re an intermediate knitter reading this, whether or not you’re in the San Luis Obispo area, what sorts of techniques would you like to learn? What’s always baffled you? What do you wish you could do better?

As for crochet, I figure a monthly beginner class, intermediate class, and lace class will be a good mix. Any suggestions on that front are welcome too of course!